Jackets Battle on Two Fronts This Weekend

Sept. 30, 2011

ATLANTA – Georgia Tech’s men’s tennis team hosts the Georgia Tech Fall Invitational Saturday through Monday at the Bill Moore Tennis Center. The annual event features two singles draws and two doubles draws. All three of Tech’s freshman players will participate.

Eduardo Segura Mandarino of Madrid, Spain, Vikram Hundal of Alpharetta, Ga., and Colin Edwards of Tampa, Fla., each participated in last week’s Southern Intercollegiate Championships, combining to go 3-5. They are part of a field of nearly 60 players which will compete for singles and doubles titles to be decided Monday.

The rest of Tech’s players will be involved in the ITA All-American Championships, which begin Saturday in Tulsa, Okla. Tech features the nation’s top-ranked doubles team in senior Kevin King and Juan Spir, and three Tech players are ranked in the nation’s top 100 in singles, including Spir (34th), King (85th) and transfer Juan Melian Puigventos (97th) from Georgia Southern, the 2011 Southern Conference Player of the Year.

“We look forward to hosting our Fall Invitational again this year,” said head coach Kenny Thorne. “We have our three freshman playing at home in our event while our four upper classmen will be competing in the All American event in Tulsa. This gives our entire team the chance to compete and build on the last tournament. I look forward to seeing the progress in each guy. These tournaments are opportunities to excel, and it is always important to see who is inspired to be successful at the highest level.”

Senior Dusan Miljevic is in the pre-qualification draw, which begins Saturday, while King and Melian are in the singles qualification draw, which begins Monday. Spir is in the main draw of singles, which starts next Thursday. On the doubles side, Spir and King are in the main draw, while Miljevic and Melian are entered in the qualifying draw.

King and Spir will play together for the first time this fall after partnering with other Tech teammates at least weekend’s SIC. They posted a 34-11 overall record in 2010-11 and reached the semifinals of the NCAA Championship.

Spir, a junior from Medellin, Colombia, went 1-1 last weekend at the SIC and was 1-1 in the ITA All-America event on the way to a 22-13 campaign in singles. King, a junior from Peachtree City, Ga., who was 23-8 last year, won twice last weekend and reached the round of 16. Melian, a junikor from Las Palmas, Spain, who went 22-1 last year for Georgia Southern, won his first-round match at the SIC and extended his personal winning streak to 17 matches before falling in the round of 32.

Miljevic, a senior from Novi Sad, Serbia, who went 17-8 last year, had a good weekend at the SIC, winning twice before falling to the nation’s 24th-ranked player, Georgia’s Sadio Doumbia.